As in Mrs. Dalloway, I also find that one of the last passages in The Hours serves as the most poignant in the entire novel. We get to see how Clarissa's take on everything that has occurred throughout the day, including the suicide of her best friend, has evolved over the course of a few hours (which, by the way, there are many references to throughout the novel...hours here, hours there, hours everywhere).
"Yes, Clarissa thinks, it's time for the day to be over. We throw our parties; we abandon our families to live alone in Canada; we struggle to write books that do not change the world...We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep--it's as simple an ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us, the vast majority, are slowly devoured by some disease, or if we're fortunate, by time itself. There's just this consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined...Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more" (pg. 225).
It's beautiful. Enough said. I had one of these "hours" this weekend, and I can completely see where Cunningham is coming from about these special instances in our lives.
-Megan R.
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..indeed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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